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MasterCard Worldwide is banking heavily on growth in emerging markets in Asia and Latin America to achieve average annual net-income growth of 20% to 30%, Walt M. Macnee, MasterCard president, global markets, told analysts during a conference last week. China and India present the biggest opportunities for MasterCard in Asia because mass urbanization in both countries is giving rise to second- and third-tier cities with populations of 1 million to 3 million residents, he said. The shift to cities is fueling middle-class growth and boosting discretionary spending, especially among women. "Women in Asia are becoming the key financial decision-makers in households, and they also appear to have more discretionary spending power than ever before," Macnee said. A growing sector of affluent Asian women also is driving new credit card products, such as the Lady's Solitaire World MasterCard launched in March by Singapore's largest issuer, United Overseas Bank Limited, he noted. The card pays triple points on purchases of luxury merchandise and also grants cardholders access to concierge-level services, events and fashion shows. Latin America presents another growth opportunity for MasterCard, as an increasingly youthful population shifts from almost exclusive reliance on cash to electronic payments, particularly debit cards. In Venezuela the government is using MasterCard prepaid debit cards to replace cash in a widely used public meal-voucher program. "By 2010, there will be more people in Latin America under the age of 35 than in the U.S. and Europe combined, and it's that younger segment that will be our engine of growth in Latin America," Macnee said.

L.L. Bean informed customers via its Web site that it is discontinuing its co-branded Visa card with Bank of America Corp.

ServerSide Group is offering smaller issuers a less-expensive version of its card-customization service, the London-based company, whose U.S. headquarters is in New York, announced Monday. The entry-level version of ServerSide's AllAboutMe online card-design service works much like the original, says Vadim Kagan, ServerSide manager of product development. Cardholders using the scaled-back service through their issuers still can choose from several stock images, or they can upload their own digital images for their gift, credit, debit or other payment cards, Kagan tells CardLine Global. Cardholders access the design features through a ServerSide Web site that appears as a frame within issuers' Web sites. Issuers using the entry-level AllAboutMe service will forego more-advanced features, such as enabling cardholders to layer additional images or text over the original images they choose for their cards. But issuers will pay up to 75% less for the entry-level service than for the full-featured version, Kagan says. He declines to disclose exact prices of the standard service, which varies according to features and volume. Some issuers prefer the full-featured service, which ServerSide customizes according to their needs, but most smaller issuers do not need the extra options, Kagan says. "Most issuers want to make the experience as easy as possible for their cardholders," he says. ServerSide claims that 74 issuers in 21 countries have used its card-customization service.

The combined fraud rate for charge, credit and debit cards in Australia last year equaled 27.9 Australian cents (27 U.S. cents or 17 euros cents) per AU$1,000 spent, up 16.7% from 23.9 Australian cents the previous year, according to the Australian Payments Clearing Association. The overall fraud rate for checks and payment cards remained steady at 6.2 Australian cents per AU$1,000, down slightly from 6.3 Australian cents in 2006, says the group, which has about 80 members, including issuers. But increasing fraud on card transactions conducted by phone or on the Internet helped increase the rate for payment cards. "Australia's increase in [card-not-present and cross-border] fraud appears consistent with trends reported in the UK and the Asia-Pacific region over the last few years," Chris Hamilton, the group's chief executive, says in a statement. Fraud rates for charge and credit cards increased to 44.5 cents per AU$1,000, up 20.6% from 36.9 cents for 2006, the group says. Fraud rates for debit cards dropped to 7.1 Australian cents per AU$1,000, down 7.8% from 7.7 cents in 2006.

First Data Corp. will offer a card-acceptance package for Austrian merchants, the United States-based processor says in a statement. 'FirstPos' enables First Data to become a direct vendor of payment devices in addition to processing cards. "Merchants remain independent and can keep their terminal and service contracts even if they change their acquiring partner," Karin Skarek, First Data managing director in Austria, says in a statement. The service includes terminals that already comply with future European Union regulations, the acceptance of different cards and a monthly flat fee that includes technical services, the statement says. First Data processes 430 million card payments per year in Austria, according to the company.

Vietnamese police reportedly plan to charge Nguyen Hoang Yen, a Ho Chi Minh-based employee of a travel-services firm, with credit card fraud. Yen allegedly stole customer credit card details to buy tickets from Pacific Airlines. Yen then resold the tickets. Fraud losses reportedly stand at about US$16,000 (10,300 euros). Police in Vietnam offered no comment to CardLine Global, but authorities reportedly are searching for three Nigerians alleged to have helped Yen commit fraud.

CreditCardCompare, an Australia-based Web site that enables consumers to review card offers, says it has introduced a debt-calculator service for cardholders. The service enables consumers to enter the debt amount and repayment schedule to estimate how long it will take them to pay off card debt. "Credit card debt is a growing issue," Steven Anderson, head of Research with Sydney-based financial-research company InfoChoice Ltd., tells CardLine Global. "We do not believe that it is out of control, but banking statistics are showing that [card] debt that is not paid off at the end of the month is growing, albeit growing at a slower rate than was previously the case."

When Canadian shoppers come to the United States, they spend significantly more on their average debit card transaction than their U.S. counterparts spend while shopping at home. That information comes from a report on cross-border PIN-debit transactions between December 2007 and March 2008 from NYCE Payments Network LLC and Acxsys Corp. Canadians spent an average of more than $68 per cross-border debit transaction, 45% more than the average U.S. debit cardholders spent while shopping at home in the U.S. during the same four-month period. NYCE, a Secaucus, N.J.-based PIN-debit network, and Acxsys, which designed Canada's Interac debit service, three years ago formed an alliance called the Cross-Border service. The service enables Canadians to pay with their debit cards at U.S. retailers that accept NYCE-branded cards. NYCE attributes increases in Canadian buying to holiday shopping and Canadians vacationing in the southern U.S. states to escape Canada's winter. However, two states that border Canada–Washington and New York–accounted for most of Canadians' U.S. debit card transactions, according to the announcement.

Bankruptcy filings in the federal courts for the 12-month period ending March 31, 2008, exceeded 900,000, according to statistics released Tuesday by the Administrative Office of the U.S. Courts.

Target Corp., had net write-offs in its credit card business of $161 million during the first quarter ended May 3, rising 62.6% from net write-offs of $99 million in the year-ago quarter, the retailer and issuer reported late Monday.

The rosy outlook for profits outlined last week by MasterCard Worldwide is justified, with a few caveats, analysts at Stifel, Nicolaus & Co. note in a report issued today. The Baltimore, Md.-based research company raised its price estimate for MasterCard stock well above previous forecasts, from $312 to $367 per share. In their report, the analysts wrote that some investors wonder how MasterCard could forecast double-digit revenue growth during an economic downturn (CardLine, 5/30). The key to the card brand's success is that higher consumer prices do not mean lower payment card volume, the researchers say. Moreover, strong growth in international markets is driving transaction-volume growth around the world, as are such new payment technologies as prepaid and contactless cards. MasterCard's bullish outlook of achieving average annual net-income growth of 20% to 30% "is not only achievable, but surpassable," according to the report. The only possible obstacles to MasterCard's reaching its goals would be a sharp slowdown in global consumer spending or significant regulatory changes that could affect merchant fees in the United States and in Europe, the analysts wrote. Investors might also be deterred by MasterCard's rising stock price. "The stock is not cheap, and the valuation could be vulnerable to increased economic concerns," the analysts wrote. MasterCard stock today was selling at about $310.06 per share in midday trading, down $9.94, or 3.1%, from yesterday's closing price.

Target Corp. had net income of $602 million for its fiscal first quarter ended May 3, down 7.5% from $651 million in the same three months last year, the retailer and card issuer reported late Monday. Credit card revenues totaled $500 million, up 19.6% from $418 million in the same period last year. Credit card expenses totaled $274 million, increasing 61.2% from $170 million. Net write-offs for Target's credit card business were $161 million, up 62.6% from $99 million. Net write-offs as a percentage of average receivables grew to 7.6% from 6% a year ago. "As expected, net write-offs in the first quarter increased substantially," Target said in its 10-Q filing with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission. "This year-over-year change is due to two primary factors: the unsustainably strong performance in this metric in last year's first quarter and the increased write-off activity concentrated in four states that have been particularly affected by housing-related weakness: Florida, Arizona, Nevada and California."

Rumors of Mr. Bill's demise at the hands of Mr. Hands and Sluggo are greatly exaggerated. More than 30 years after the clay figure first appeared on NBC-TV's Saturday Night Live, with his trademark yelp, "Oh, noooo," Mr. Bill will be starring in advertisements for MasterCard Worldwide's debit card. During regular appearances on the late-night television show for seven years, Mr. Bill was stabbed, set on fire, scalped, flattened and maimed—just to name a few of the indignities he endured. So why bring back the long-suffering star? "Mr. Bill is an iconic character who is always on the receiving end of situations Mr. Hands bestows upon him. In our new spot, we put a sunny twist on Mr. Bill's adventures," Chris Jogis, MasterCard vice president of U.S. brand development, tells CardLine. The "Priceless" television spots will begin Monday. Although Mr. Bill likely will be best-remembered by consumers over the age of 35, MasterCard is not using the character to market to any particular group, according to Jogis, who cites "mass-market" as the chosen demographic for the ads. "Instead of using cash, debit MasterCard is a tool that helps consumers monitor and manage expenses, empowering them to be the financial hero of their everyday lives," Jogis says of the message MasterCard is trying to convey with the Mr. Bill ads.

Everlink Payment Service Inc., a Canadian provider of electronic transactions and payments services, today announced an agreement with Monitise Americas LLC to distribute a mobile-banking suite of services to financial institutions in Canada, including 375 credit unions. Monitise recently signed similar agreements with five United States-based financial institutions to distribute the suite of services through the NYCE electronic funds transfer network (CardLine, 2/4). Users can check account balances, view recent transactions, transfer funds and receive text-message alerts. Everlink hopes to add bill payment and person-to-person mobile payments in the future, the company says in a statement. Several domestic and foreign subsidiary banks in Canada and independent service organizations also will offer the service, the statement says.

NCR Corp. has raised $53,800 to help earthquake victims in China, Lorraine Russell, an NCR spokesperson, tells ATM&Debit News, a CardLine sister publication. NCR employees in China raised $23,800, and company employees in Japan raised another $5,000. The NCR Foundation, which is based in Dayton, Ohio, more than matched the employees' donations. NCR, the world's largest ATM manufacturer based on 2007 shipments, operates an ATM-manufacturing plant in Beijing. The earthquake, which struck May 12, killed 69,000 individuals, according to news reports. Nearly 19,000 are missing. NCR also is working with several banks, including Agricultural Bank of China in Sichuan Province, where the earthquake occurred. The disaster destroyed 65 of Agricultural Bank of China's ATMs. NCR employees are discussing with Agricultural Bank employees deployment of mobile ATMs and cash-recycling systems to replace the destroyed machines, Russell says. "China is a cash society, and by keeping cash circulation it helps restore normalcy," she says.

MasterCard Worldwide predicted double-digit net-revenue growth for the year and boosted its long-term profit outlook yesterday during a conference with analysts, marking the second anniversary of the company going public in May 2006. Robert W. Selander, MasterCard president and CEO, told analysts that while the U.S. economy's growth has slowed and retail sales are down in nearly every category, emerging international markets continue to show strong growth, including Brazil, Hungary, Poland and Russia. MasterCard revised its long-term performance goal for the next three years beginning in 2009 to an average annual net income growth of 20% to 30% from its previous goal of 15% to 20% growth, fueled by debit card growth, cross-border transaction and processing fees, and expansion into new markets, particularly in China and India. The company said it expects to see average annual net-revenue growth in the 12% to 15% range, up from its previous 8% to 10% growth goal. Selander noted that since MasterCard's initial public offering, the company's share price has increased sevenfold, and he expects the company to continue to produce strong results despite present economic challenges. "We are clearly operating with weakened economic conditions in many parts of the world," Selander said. MasterCard stock was trading at about $314 per share at midday today, close to its all-time high of $316 per share

BB&T Corp. has adopted InterConnect, a risk and customer relationship management system developed by the credit bureau Equifax Inc., the companies will announce Tuesday.

General Electric Co. on Monday signed a deal announced in March to sell its credit card and automotive-lending businesses in the United Kingdom and its GE Money units in Germany, Finland, Australia and Ireland to Spain-based Banco Santander. The parties valued the deal at US$1.5 billion (1 billion euros). The Irish unit was not part of the deal when it was announced earlier this year. In return, GE Consumer Finance acquires Interbanca, an Italian commercial bank assigned to Banco Santander in 2007 as part of its purchase of holdings from Dutch bank ABN Amro (CardLine Global, 28 March). GE did not respond to requests for comment from CardLine Global. The deal remains subject to regulatory approvals, but the companies expect to close the deal early in the fourth quarter, according to published reports.

First Data Corp. and Frontier Airlines Holdings Inc. on Friday announced an agreement in which the Greenwood Village, Colo.-based payments processor will continue to process Visa and MasterCard charges for the airline's customers. The agreement provides First Data with appropriate protection for processing customer credit card purchases on a "business-as-usual" basis, according to a news release. First Data declined to comment on the agreement. A Frontier Airlines spokesperson also declined to give more details but did tell CardLine sister publication ISO&Agent Weekly the agreement "stabilizes another portion of our business, and it allows us to continue moving forward in the Chapter 11 process." Denver-based Frontier filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection April 10 following what it called an unexpected move by First Data to "substantially increase" the amount it withholds to cover potential losses based on risk (CardLine, 4/11). "The First Data thing wasn't the only reason" for filing for bankruptcy protection, the spokesperson says. "Obviously, the rising fuel costs are probably the biggest culprit–not just for us but every single airline." Frontier filed a motion Friday with the federal bankruptcy court in New York to approve the agreement, but a hearing date had not been set.

Sixty percent of households that contributed online to a presidential campaign supported a Democratic presidential candidate, according to Synergistics Research Corp. More than one-fifth of the respondents, or 22%, made online donations to a Republican candidate this election year, 2% made online contributions to an independent candidate, and the remainder refused to specify the candidate's party affiliation, says Genie Driskill, chief operating officer of the Atlanta-based research group. The survey also revealed 9% of households with Internet access overall made political contributions online, households earning less than $30,000 per year and households earning more than $100,000 leading middle income groups with 13% each. "It seems to be what you would expect of the groups that contribute in terms of household income with the more-affluent … and the younger consumers who would fall into the [lower] income group," Driskill tells CardLine. The survey of 1,001 households with Internet access concluded in April.